Making the invisible visible

OPEN STUDIO EXHIBITION 2022:
Studio 137 Mostyn St Castlemaine: [Number 5 on Map]
Sat 12, Sun 13, Mon 14 March: 10am – 4pm
Sat 19, Sun 20: 10am – 4pm.

ARTIST TALK: 
How do we reimagine the landscape and environment prior to the European invasion?
Wed 16 March 2022, from  7.30 – 9 pm
Northern Arts Hotel | 359 Barker St Castlemaine
Entry is free: Low Bar Open for drinks.

I acknowledge that I live, work and play on Djaara Country. Lands nurtured and cultivated by the traditional custodians for deep time, and for their cultural, social, economic and physical relationship with Country, resources and waters. I pay respect to ancestors and elders past, present and emerging. This land was never ceded.

Context

My work continues to explore the meta-narrative of Colonial invasion and to deconstruct the denial of our colonial past. My visual narrative evolved through diverse research, explores Dja Dja Wurrung culture, environment, and history, acknowledging and reimagining Indigenous presence, lifeways, and the effects of ‘colonisation’- invasion, prior to the discovery of gold.

My work focuses on connecting descriptions and images of cultural material and landscapes, to gain insights into the astounding abundance of pre-colonial times, with a focus on environmental change, and its relevance to the Murray Darling Basin and Australia Felix.

I revisit early contact times, prior to gold, to reveal the extraordinary cultural landscapes and life-ways of First Nations, particularly the Dja Dja Wurrung. I utilise images, text, and maps to revisit this tumultuous time and explore it through visual narrative, text and paintings.

I also explore many themes from the Dark Emu Debate questioning whether Indigenous culture was purely nomadic or is indeed a combination of farming, aquatic and hunter-gather lifestyle developed over the 60,000+ years of deep time. I expand upon ideas and documents concealed in the annals of history, to shed light on this under-represented era of colonial invasion and occupation.

Driven by a relentless commitment to cultural and ecological justice, my research and paintings expand on the theme of life in central Victoria prior to colonial arrival, revealing the unprecedented pastoral invasion, indigenous dispossession, environmental degradation, and cultural change leading up to the gold rushes.

New works:

The Dawson Series

Guns Germs and Steel

The Dawson Series

Basket, bucket and burl.

Water containers: pouches and raised trough.

Contents of string bag: fire lighting;
shells for cutting; ball of twine from tail sinews

String bags for collecting tuberous roots

Two types of grinding stones: for vegetables, and grains.

Grass mat & sheet of bark for food preparation